Indiana House Passes a Bill on Union Fees

Published: January 25, 2012 - New York Times

The Republican-held Indiana House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday barring union contracts from requiring nonunion members to pay fees for representation, ending weeks of partisan battling and all but assuring that the state will become the first in the Midwestern manufacturing belt deemed a “right to work” state.

Even as the lawmakers in Indianapolis voted 54 to 44, mostly along partisan lines, to approve the measure, legislators and union leaders in other states said they were preparing for similar fights ahead. In some states, Republican supporters of “right to work” provisions said Indiana’s move — the first state to take such a course in more than a decade — had added a sense of urgency to their own efforts.

“I’m disappointed that they beat us to this one,” Mike Shirkey, a Republican state representative from Michigan, said of Indiana, adding that he hoped a similar measure might soon be debated in Michigan. “Now a border state is going to establish a leverage position in being attractive to businesses.”

Union organizers, who had mobilized scores of supporters to chant in protest from the halls in the Indiana Statehouse, said Indiana’s fight had left them girding for battles in other capitals.

“They’re not going to stop in Indiana,” Brian Buhle, secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters Local 135 in Indianapolis, said after the vote. “And there’s certainly going to be a national effort on behalf of all of national labor to try to stop it from spreading to other states in the Midwest.”

The legislation in Indiana, which Republican leaders said would help the state’s ability to attract businesses but Democrats argued would weaken unions and lower workers’ wages, still needs approval from the Republican-dominated State Senate and the signature of Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican. Both steps were expected in a matter of days, so leaders in Indiana were already presuming that the state would soon become the 23rd in the nation with a “right to work” law.

“I know we’re going to get looks from employers now that weren’t looking at Indiana,” Brian Bosma, the Republican speaker of Indiana’s House, said after the vote, which affects private-sector businesses.

Democrats, who hold 40 of the 100 seats in the House, had for days stayed away from meetings to prevent a quorum and a vote on the provision that protesters here called a “right to work for less” law. But, facing fines as steep as $1,000 per day, the Democrats finally appeared on the House floor on Wednesday afternoon, at one point opening doors to the chamber so that chants from the protesters flooded the room. One alluded to coming elections: “Remember November!”

“This is an embarrassment before the nation,” Representative Scott Pelath, a Democrat, said of the final vote, in which all Democrats who were present voted ‘no,’ as did five Republicans.

Leaders in other states that have considered similar legislation acknowledged that they were watching closely — both for the outcome of the vote and scale of the protests. While Indiana was seen as a place where the current political alignment made such a measure more likely to pass, more debates were expected in the coming months.

In New Hampshire, where the Legislature passed a similar law last year that was vetoed by the Democratic governor, new legislation, aimed at public workers, was being considered. And in Maine, some leaders are pushing for a similar measure. In Missouri, a bill calling for a statewide vote on a “right to work” provision has been advanced by a Senate committee.

“Their having passed right to work is an encouragement to legislators in the state of Missouri,” Senator Robert N. Mayer, a Republican there, said of Indiana. “This just shows that other states are looking.”